When we last left our heroes, they were rising from their sleep at the Wolf’s Head Inn in the village of Swallowfeld. It had been a pleasant evening particularly in comparison to their last couple of days involving undead, a malicious imp, and a “blessing” for one character, Bay, from the imp’s mistress…whoever she might be. The hospitality of their host, Kettle, was quite welcomed. Their intent for this day was to head out for the Temple of Vélen and see if they could find any information about the location of Cynric’s Folly as well as deliver the pouch that Galden Hearthtop (at the Fellowship Hall in Wolverton) had tasked them with giving to the head priest at the temple.
Fair warning for those that like action and combat, there wasn’t much during this session. Well, actually, there wasn’t really any…except a rather one-sided sparring match between Pounder and Thalimor. This was another one of our crappy sessions that was pretty much all in-character roleplaying [yes, crappy is tongue in cheek]. It was also a bunch of setting building via the roleplaying. Swallowfeld got a bit fleshed out as did the Temple of Vélen.
As you read this, keep in mind that the temple has fallen from its glory days and is dilapidated and underpopulated. There is also an element of dysfunction that I hoped started to come out as the PCs had the opportunity to interact with the PCs. In some ways, perhaps at least in terms of the “mood” of the temple as a setting, I had the movie, The Name of the Rose, in the back of my mind throughout this session.
Muse was missing this session and so RJ played Osric in her absence which, I’m sure, probably has Muse wondering, as she reads this, just what kind of trouble RJ got Osric into this session. The last time he played Osric, he had the big fighter go and hug a zombie which, of course, earned Osric a few nibbles on the neck as a result. Rather than keep Muse in suspense any longer, the session recap is below the break.
Heading down the stairs to the main room for their morning meal, the group found that Pounder had risen and left before they had. As they descended the stairs, they were greeted by Saewig, Kettle’s wife. Wearing a plethora of makeup, she was very talkative and immediately began to question the heroes. Rather than simply serving them breakfast, she actually joined them for the meal. Thalimor did the majority of the talking.
The bard explained that they had met Pounder on a road quite some time ago when he had, previously, been saving some children. As a group, they had all traveled together for quite some time. Thalimor introduced everyone to Saewig. When Bay was introduced, Thalimor explained that the poor man had been kicked in the head by a horse years ago and was now mute and somewhat deficient in mental capacities. Regardless, he and Bay were practically brothers–although he made it clear that they weren’t actually brothers.
[All of this, of course, was pretty much a lie. Thalimor appears to have some difficulty with sticking with just the simple truth, especially if the story he tells is more interesting. It had been decided that Bay would keep his mouth shut…figuratively and literally…to hide his shark teeth. Needless to say, RJ wasn’t too pleased with the direction Thomas took the conversation to explain Bay’s silence…but he did play along in good humor.]
Eventually, the conversation turned towards Thalimor’s eligibility…as in his eligibility for marriage. Once he indicated that he was indeed not married, Saewig wasted no time in dragging Thalimor out behind the inn to meet one of two of the village’s young women, one in particular by the name of Ardor. An attractive young woman, Ardor was seated with another young woman and doing laundry. Saewig planted Thalimor right next to the woman and told them to get acquainted. The pair spoke a bit with Ardor’s companion, on her other side, occasionally whispering things in her ear. Things that made Ardor blush and eventually tell her to stop saying such things but Ardor did seem to be warming towards the young half-elf.
Thalimor hoped to deflect the conversation away from the pre-romantic turn it was taking by discussing his noble pedigree. He explained that his family had already arranged a marriage for him with another noble house of a nearby kingdom. [Another lie as far as a I know.] This only seemed to spur Ardor on and she continued to question when he might be staying the night again until Thalimor excused himself to head back inside. Thalimor did learn one bit of information in all of this…Saewig has the nickname of “the Magpie” for some reason.
Meanwhile, Saewig had headed back inside and asked to speak with Isenthorne. She apologized that she hadn’t spoken with her before taking Thalimor outside to meet with Ardor. If she and Thalimor were romantically involved, Saewig would, of course, not meddle or try to introduce him to other women. After a brief look of horror flew across her face, Isenthorne explained that she and Thalimor had not such relationship or, as Saewig asked about the other men in her group, with any of the others…they are all like brothers to her. Isenthorne’s single status seemed to make Saewig quite happy.
Having finished their meal (and perhaps a bit concerned about getting dragged into village romances), the group headed out to find Pounder. He was just outside in the village square performing some drills with his big tree branch [aka greatclub]. Several villagers, especially some children, had gathered around to watch. Thalimor tried to talk with Pounder and the half-orc immediately asked if the sapling of a bard was their to spar with him. Thalimor noted that his rapier would be no match for the tree trunk that Pounder was using but Pounder said they could use some fighting staves instead. A couple of the village youth quickly ran off and returned with staves for the pair.
During the match, a couple of things were noticed. First, Isenthorne spotted Saewig talking with a man, presumably one of Swallowfeld’s residents, and pointing out Isenthorne. The pair looked at her with interest. Thalimor also noticed Ardor watching him spar. When she saw that he had spotted her, she blew him a kiss which was enough to distract him and lead Pounder to rapping him on the knuckles. This ended the sparring. While Isenthorne spoke with Pounder about accompanying them to the temple (to which Pounder said he would have breakfast first and then catch up with them), Ardor came to see to Thalimor’s knuckles. Despite his protests, she kissed his knuckles with a promise of more romance to come twinkling in her eyes.
Pounder headed to the Wolf’s Head for his meal and the others set off to the west for the Temple of Vélen. Where the road, the Cliffway, between Wolverton and Swallowfeld had been obviously well-traveled, this “road” was not. In a short distance, the road turned into more of a trail. In some spots, branches and even whole trees had fallen across it and had not yet been cleared. Also unlike the Cliffway before which had mostly been through cleared lands, most of this path was through woods. Along the way, Isenthorne spotted signs that goblins had been in the area…various markings that different tribes leave on trees to essentially say that they had been here. [One of Isenthorne’s favored enemies is goblins so she had no trouble spotting their markings.] No actual goblins, however, were spotted.
Pounder, on his struggling horse beneath him, did catch up with the others. After some five hours or so, they exited the woods to find the temple complex perched on a rocky point. The path was about thirty feet or so from the ever-present cliffs along the Lonely Coast’s shore. An even smaller path led directly to the edge and, when it was examined, over the edge to a series of steep switchbacks leading down to the sea. Some huts were visible at the bottom and a few fishing boats were spotted out at sea, Prayer’s Point.
Continuing towards the temple, a recent grave was spotted a short distance from the road and about thirty feet from the temple’s walls. The grave was unmarked. This was definitely something out of the ordinary. Most priests at a temple like this would normally be interred in the temple’s graveyard or catacombs.
As they reached the temple’s gates, the group was accosted by someone from beyond. This person was not the friendliest and demanded to know their business, their names, and where they hailed from. When he learned that Thalimor and Isenthorne were from The Gift and Blackthorn respectively, he was even less happy. The man even seemed to recognize Thalimor’s House, House Bali-O’Sahalan. He was particularly interested if either of the two were here looking for anyone. Despite this, he still opened the gates and introduced himself as Malvenos (a half-elf) and the one in charge of the security and safety of the temple.
[The Gift (and House Bali-O’Sahalan) and Blackthorn are areas that have not been fleshed out much at all outside of what Thomas and Rachel mentioned during character creation and very little during play. Both are on the opposite side of the Kingdom of Thaeda. The Gift is a land that separates Thaeda from some elven lands. Malvenos’ slight accent marked him as from that area…at least to Thalimor’s bardic ears.]
Inside the walls, the complex is rather large. The Fellowship Hall was directly ahead. A series of other buildings were scattered within the walls. An orchard and large garden were visible as well. Even more buildings peeked out from beyond those closer to the entrance. Malvenos told the group to remain where they were, just inside the gates, and he went and fetched one of the priests.
The man he brought back was introduced himself as Berangar and one of the temple’s priests. He asked if the group about their business. When they explained that they brought a package for Godric from Galden Hearthtop, Berangar explained that Godric would be occupied with prayers for awhile. He offered to provide some refreshments in the meantime and led the group to a large dining hall. When asked about the grave outside, Berangar simply said that it would be best if Godric explained about that. Seeing the group settled, Berangar attended to some of his own duties promising to come back when Godric was available.
The dining hall was quite large and could easily sit at least two score people at the tables. However, so far, the heroes had only seen two people so far, Berangar and Malvenos. The refreshments were simple but hearty and the ale well crafted. After about an hour, another priest returned to escort the group to Godric’s office.
Godric, the head of the Temple of Vélen, was a very elderly man. As he rose to greet the group, Berangar, who also in the office, hustled to other side of the desk to help Godric stand. Introductions were made and Galden’s pouch was delivered. It turned out to contain a series of documents that Godric explained were various fragments of other works. Once a great center of learning, the Temple of Vélen had declined significantly since its famed library was burned many years ago. The task of the remaining priests ever since had been to recreate as much of that library as they could. Fragments like those delivered by the group were often invaluable in this work.
As thanks for their delivery, the group was, of course, welcome to the hospitality of the temple, including sleeping quarters and meals. The group then asked about the grave. The elderly man was clearly saddened by the events that he began to explain. One of the youngest priests and a talented scribe and historian with great promise had recently committed suicide by throwing himself from the temple’s outer wall along the cliff and to the rocks far below. All had liked the young man, Aethelric, and were shocked by his death and its manner. He was buried in the unmarked grave outside the temple as he could not be interred within given the taking of his own life. The group quickly offered to investigate the death and Godric indicated that would be fine as long as Malvenos had no issues with it.
Thalimor then turned the discussion to more personal issues for the party by asking if any at the temple were skilled at removing curses. Godric got straight to the point and asked who among them had been cursed. Thalimor explained what had happened back in the ruined complex and the strange waters that Bay and the others had drunk in an attempt to save some children. While the others had vomited up the liquid, Bay had not and the imp had stated that he was blessed by his mistress.
A few prodding questions from Godric got Thalimor to share the sketches of the symbols that had been found in the complex. The old priest recognized both as being Dracmosi in origin [a people that predated even the Thioda who predated the Thaeden.] The symbol that had been on the bowl with the drunk liquid was that of Rosszanya, a powerful demon also known as the “Foul Mother.” He quickly covered the symbol and cautioned Thalimor against showing it. The other symbol signified “wrath” and the statue of the woman it was found upon was most likely a Dracmosi queen. Godric seemed to enjoy discussing this history but admitted that they had no remaining writings about the Dracmosi and that he was the only remaining priest at the temple who had much knowledge of those ancient people.
Godric asked if the group had reported this imp and the ruins to Warseld Keep in Swallowfeld. The group, somewhat sheepishly, admitted that they had not reported it. The priest simply recommended that they do so; the Baron should know of such things.
Bay showed his physical changes and Godric noted that he did not know of a way to reverse this “blessing.” Of course, as far as he knew, no one had been subjected to the Waters of the Foul Mother for centuries; waters which, as Bay had found out, transformed the drinker’s body. Godric asked Bay a few questions about craving blood or souls or anything of the sort which Bay vehemently denied. So while the Waters had physically changed him, perhaps that had not taken root in his soul. The Waters were said to warp one’s soul as well with those already having corrupted souls being more susceptible to such effects. Godric recommended caution and diligence towards Bay and should he begin to “turn” to evil, that the merciful thing would be to kill him quickly. Goric note that Malvenos would have to be instructed to pay particular attention to Bay.
[My mention of already corrupted souls elicited a few moans and looks of resignation that seemed to suggest that the players think it is less a matter of IF the Waters will corrupt Bay than it is of WHEN. Gotta love it!
Also would now probably be a good time to mention that I think the players are assuming that all priests are clerics…as in the class of cleric…with the class abilities of such. I didn’t directly point out the fallacy of this assumption during the session…outside of Godric indicating that no one there could do much…but I will now. Just like not every guard or man-at-arms is a Fighter with class levels, not every priest or what have you has class levels in whatever either. NPCs don’t follow the same rules as PCs and characters with class levels are probably more the exception than the rule.]
Isenthorne and Thalimor also asked about Cynric’s Folly which elicited a coughing laugh from Godric. He pointed out that the folly in Cynric’s Folly meant more than just the folly of Cynric…something they had all already heard before. Isenthorne explained that her father, Leander, had once come here seeking information about Ironwolf Keep and had told her about it. Godric remembered her elven father and that he had, indeed, come to the Temple some twenty years ago before the library burned. However, he got “distracted” and never got around pursuing his research. When Isenthorne asked about what distracted him, Godric would not answer and indicated that it was not his place to mention. He then noted that the conversation had tired him and he needed some rest.
I’m not completely sure if Rachel was just playing Isenthorne as being innocent or she didn’t pick up on it but the other players pretty much assumed that the distraction was a young woman. Like Godric, however, I won’t discuss it any further. 😉 ]
With that, Berangar escorted the group to the dormitory and their chambers for the night. A large multi-floor building, the group was to be quartered on the second floor while the current residents at the temple only took up part of the first floor. As there had been no guests or residents for the other rooms, things were a bit dusty and musty. Berangar apologized for this and lamented that they did not have the manpower to keep it all clean but the group dismissed the concern and offered to clean their rooms themselves. They spent much of the rest of the afternoon doing just that.
The dinner bell summoned all to the dining hall. The priests were already in attendance and, including Malvenos, the residents of the temple numbered less than ten! The dining hall and dormitory could easily hold four or five times that number. Hard times indeed! Introductions were made to Ymma (the only woman at the temple and quite young), Hrothwig (who appeared to be a bit simple), Swayn (another young priest), Guthleod, Eadric (both middle aged priests), and Oswin (an older priest but not nearly as old as Godric). Dinner was rather quiet and somber until Thalimor starts up some conversation.
This seems to shock most of the priests at the table and Godric explains that they rarely speak much during dinner but that there is nothing the restricts talk at dinner. Taking that as permission to chat away, Thalimor pressed on. He and Oswin struck some conversation and, as a result, it was learned that Oswin had previously served at the Temple of Vélen but had left due to differences in opinion about knowledge. Berangar started to grow angry and Oswin clearly continued to bait him until Godric asked Oswin to leave the table.
After dinner, Malvenos escorted the party to the Scriptorium so they could look at Aethelric’s desk. It only contained supplies as the documents that he had been working on had already been reassigned. Their guard/escort did not have the details on who had been assigned what as that would have been handled by Godric or Berangar. The group wanted to look at the other desks but Malvenos protested, stating that they were here to investigate Aethelric and not the others. The group explained that perhaps something Aethelric had been working on had caused him to kill himself and so Malvenos grudgingly agreed to let one of them search one desk at a time. The search turned up nothing suspicious or of interest so they decided to go check out Aethelric’s quarters.
As they arrived at the Dormitory, Eadric was dragging Hrothwig out and beating him. When accosted by the group, Eadric told Hrothwig to show what he had. The priest had some of Isenthorne’s spare clothing! It turned out that the simpleton priest had a penchant for taking the belongings of others. He gave the clothing back and kept hitting himself, saying, “Bad Hrothwig! Bad Hrothwig!” It wasn’t clear who was giving him a better beating, himself or Eadric.
Hrothwig promised to never do it again. But some thought that perhaps he may have stolen something from Aethelric that may have contributed to the suicide. Hrothwig did admit to having found Thalimor’s box [the magical one from the ruins] but had not taken it since it was evil. Their questioning, however, bore no other fruit except even more self-inflicted blows for Hrothwig.
Eadric asked if they’d like him to report this to Berangar, which agitated Hrothwig even more, but Isenthorne indicated that wouldn’t be necessary. Hrothwig dropped to her feet, groveling and thanking her. Eadric kicked Hrothwig and told him to get up which alarmed Isenthorne. When she told him to stop the abuse, Eadric said that Hrothwig would only abuse himself worse if Eadric didn’t beat him first. With that Eadric kicked Hrothwig to his feet and kept beating him as they went inside.
Proceeding to Aethelric’s quarters, they searched it pretty thoroughly. All they found was some clothing and a spare pair of sandals under the bed. Malvenos kept a careful watch on all of these proceedings.
During the search, Ymma, who was in the next room, peeked out her doorway into the hallway and quickly shut the door when she saw most of the group in the hall outside Aethelric’s room. When Thalimor knocked on her door and tried to speak to her, the only response was a gasp from the other side of the door. Malvenos explained that Ymma had had some traumatic experiences with men before coming to the temple. So Isenthorne knocked and asked if she could speak with her.
Inside the room, the two had a short conversation. Ymma explained that she was friends with Aethelric. He was very nice and she couldn’t believe that he would commit suicide. He loved his work and worked harder than anyone and would often bring work to his quarters to work at night even though they weren’t supposed to do that. Ymma often had nightmares and trouble sleeping so the she was awake the night that Aethelric died. She had heard him leave his room in the middle of the night but didn’t hear him come back and learned that he was found dead the next morning. She seemed concerned that maybe someone had killed him.
Ymma also shared that Aethelric had kept a journal and that he had hid it under his chair in his room. With that, she seemed to drawn deep inside herself and started to rock back and forth, oblivious to her surroundings.
[Because Malvenos was still hanging around and intently watching everything that the party did, Isenthorne did not share the information she had learned from Ymma and, in particular, the existence of Aethelric’s journal or its hiding place.]
The group decided to go and look at the area of the wall where Aethelric was believed to have jumped from. Thalimor declined to join and so Malvenos insisted that he return to his room and remain there until they returned. Thalimor agreed and the rest went with Malvenos to the wall. [Don’t forget that we’ve pretty much already established that Thalimor is a near pathological liar; although, I’m sure Thomas will say it is much more nuanced that that.]
At the wall, there was nothing of note on the wall itself. No signs of a struggle or the like. It was clear, however, that someone could easily leap from the fifteen foot wall and go over the edge of the cliff which was only five feet out from the wall. It did look as though there might be a small spot on the edge of the cliff where something or someone might have hit. Heading outside the wall for a closer look, they found nothing definitive. The spot looked like something had crushed a bit of the grass at the edge but the winds had blown everything about too much to leave a clear clue.
Back at the dormitory, Thalimor waited for about a minute after he heard the others leave before coming out of his room and heading down to the first floor. His goal was to find Oswin to continue their aborted conversation from dinner. Loudly whispering Oswin at each door, he did get an answer. It was, however, from Berangar who came out and showed Thalimor Oswin’s room and then proceeded to stay rather than let the two have a private conversation.
The ensuing conversation provided Thalimor the following information. When Oswin was first at the temple, Godric had been the second in charge. When he returned, Godric had become the head priest and Berangar was his second. When Thalimor made a comment that Berangar had risen rather quickly, the priest became rather angry and agitated. Berangar pointed out that he had spent nearly thirty years devoted to the temple and has risen as a result of his hard work and devotion. This largely put an end to the conversation.
When the others returned, Berangar insisted that Malvenos keep an eye on Thalimor specifically as he was spreading discord and discontent in the temple. More than eager to focus his attentions on Thalimor as he was already highly suspicious of the bard, the warrior came up with a way to watch both him and Bay. He had them both stay in one room. Bay was tied to the bed…in case he have further physical changes or a slide towards evil…and Thalimor had one arm tied to the bed. Malvenos set up a chair in the hallway outside of their door. With that, everyone retired for the night.
All were awakened at some point during the night by the temple’s bell ringing! Isenthorne, Magnus, Osric, and Pounder all quickly got up and started out of their rooms. They could hear Malvenos’ footsteps running down the stairs himself. Thalimor, meanwhile, started to cut Bay loose but then paused, asking if he felt any different like maybe a craving for blood or souls. Bay started to answer but…
[That’s where we ended the session with a bit of a double cliffhanger with a possible alarm and with the question of whether there were any additional changes to Bay left unanswered. Wouldn’t it be something if Bay succumbed to the evil taking root in his body (and soul) while alone with Thalimor. Could be a lot of fun if you ask me.
Beer Notes: With Muse absent, we did an IPA night. We had gotten a growler of Funky Buddha’s More Moro Blood Orange IPA a few days prior. It was amazing on draft the night we got the growler but a couple of nights later (also on draft), it had already lost much of what had made it so good and was developing that buttery flavor. Sadly, the same was true of the growler. It was so disappointing for it to have changed so much so fast. Grapefruit Sculpin was next and it was hit! Last was Pliny the Elder. Need I say more. 😉 ]
